h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

First of all, I loved the two recent Dr Who series, and have always been a fan.
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Torchwood is OK but not as good as Dr Who of course, although I was worried that we may end up with son of Who, then grandson of Who.
Well it seems we have, there is now a truely terrible new series called The Sarah Jane Adventures, for kids.
It started off with an alien pinched directly from Torchwood and even had a Mrs Wormwood pun, groan.
.....I feel that all the spin offs are taking the shine of Dr Who and are cashing in in its successs, looking forward to a new Dr Who series was always exciting, all these spin offs are spoiling that for me.

Starting soon on a TV near you , a new series called "K9's Botty Burp's Take Over London!"

Oops, or even ......"taking the shine off Dr Who and cashing in on its success"!

I caught the tail end of the Sarah Jane adventures....what a load of carp!!
I like Torchwood, even though it's had alot of bad press. This new series, even though it's aimed at kids is so cheesy, i think alot of kids will find it more silly, than entertaining. Just my thoughts on it.

On Screenwipe, Torchwood was compared to Scooby Doo, what with the gang of 'kids' riding around in their 'mystery machine' (black Range Rover) investigating mysteries.

I want a sonic lipstick!

SJA had my 4 year old properly frightened, *and* understanding what's going on (we spend a large proportion of each episode of DW explaining the action). The girls liked it, although not as much as DW (because of the absence of the Doctor). Husband slept through the first half but was able to suss the plot as soon as he woke up; I found it quite suitable for a post New Year dinner slump.

And locking K9 into hoovering around a black hole was quite a neat trick. My only real worry is that RTD may be spreading himself a bit thin, but other than that I don't see anything wrong with reeling viewers in at an early age

Mol

Perhaps it was suitable for 4 year olds.....great catching kids young, but if it is at the cost of losing older viewers what is the point.
While I was looking forward to this years Dr Who Christmas special, with Torchwood being on as well it felt as if Dr Who had never been away to miss it, also with Torchwood, although OK, not being as Good as Dr Who, it felt something was degraded a little from Who as well. It is hard to explain, but perhaps too much of it, some of it a lesser quality, removes something from the Who experience for me.

But SJA wasn't *compulsory* and it wasn't aimed at you - we wouldn't have watched it if we didn't have kids in the age-range of the target audience. And Torchwood doesn't seem to be so very Doctor Who-y (apart from being set in Cardiff ) - it's got too much sex, and not enough travelling through time and space.

Did you watch the Doctor Who concert?

Mol

Dr Who concert?

I think you have to either watch with young kids, or be a young kid to enjoy the Sarah Jane thing. The Gruesome Twosome thought it was really great - managed to follow the plot without pestering a lot, didn't find it overly scary, but thrilling enough and scary enough to have that Dr Who buzz that I had as a kid

I'm finding Torchwood pretty rubbish, but the last but one ep (with those people brought forward in time) was quite stunning in its darkness. The DW christmas special was daft but entertaining. SaraJane is going to be better than K-9 & Co (how could it be worse) and as long as the Sonic-Lipstick doesn't become too much of a problem solver it will be fine.

I loved the little nods to DW (deadlock seal?? ) but I will be expecting a Torchwood reference or two.

I don't really see how you can seperate the 2 new Who off shoots due to referances in programmes, sure the newest one maybe aimed at a younger audience, but it was on BBC1 and since Who related to expect Who fans to ignor them isn't on really.
Why on earth they just didn't make 2 entirely unrelated to Who programmes is beyond me unless it is simply to cash on the Who sucess factor. To have such obvious links madee in them is bound to draw comparasons, to me anyway, it dilutes the Who specialness somehow and puts me off being so keen on the main Dr Who programmes and with so many lesser clones around I am surprised that didn't occur to makers.
I think the problem to me is if I start to associate an offshoot with sillyness then there is a danger that Dr Who maybe associated with it too. I remember watching a Dr Who repeat recently and some of the negative Torchwood comments started to spring to mind.

Come on, it's a kids show, written for kids, shown at a time for kids. What *exactly* where you expecting?

I was expectuing a kids show, which is why I didn't watch it.

My god kids (9 and 11) thought this was pretty awful, thet giggled their way through it, pointing out the silliness. They thought Sarah Janes speechifying about why she was different to those she fights, particularly funny. They said they definitey won't be watching the series when it starts.
From my point of you, i wasn't expecting grown up plots, but i was looking forward to seeing Sarah Jane, i remember her as a companion, and i always thought she was one of the best, but she seems to have had a personality transplant. Very disappointing.

I think the best solution here may be to send K9 on holiday and let gravity do the decent thing. The attempt to take a successful, female supporting role and create a new series with them as the lead reminded me strongly of the misguided attempt to give Charlie Dimmock her own series. Shame about the unnecessary destruction of cultural diversity in the episode too.

I was expecting a kids' show, but watched it anyway, mainly due to a New Years hangover from Hell, and the fact that I never pass up a chance to stare at Lis Sladen.

You know what, it rocked. Frankly I enjoyed it more than The Runaway Bride. It felt no more like a kids' show than the rest of Doctor Who does, and the only thing that really screamed 'for children' was the tame language. The kid actors didn't piss me off, which is a first, and SJ is a Hell of a lot more likable than the entire Torchwood team put together, and yes, I *do* like Torchwood.

I shall definately be setting the video for the series.

Blues, I think you are missing the point, whether it was aimed at kids or not, is not the point, the point is the diluting of Dr Who which I think is sad. Why cash in on Who when a totally differant unconected new series could be made.
Also as pointed out, the lead actress's acting was simply awful, whether this is aimed at children or not, is still not a good thing.
Another not as good as Who offshoot makes me personally begin to wonder if Dr Who is not as good as I first thought or they were just very lucky for it to go well. That was my fear when they started to do offshoots, and sadly I have not changed my mind.
As for timeing of programme, at 5pm on New Years Day is bound to draw an audience of all ages.

SS, don't forget that RTD doesn't actually *do* a lot on Torchwood. He's not even the Producer, Chibnall is.

Speaking of over-diluting of Dr Who - the Vicar of Dibley got married (shown last night) - her chief bridesmaid was dressed as David Tennant's Doctor Who and there were two Dalek bridesmaids.

I utterly loved the Sarah Jane Adventures pilot. Strong plotting, well-crafted characters and a sense of adventure and excitement that I personally felt was sadly lacking in Torchwood, which tends to fall down because none of the characters are remotely likeable.

It seems to have done well - the highest ratings for a CBBC programme in years.

Life is change.

Once this reality is grasped firmly it gets easier to deal with the inevitable disappointments of life and get on with self delusions and fantasies of one's own creation. I am looking forward to seeing the TARDIS pop up on Coronation Street and Mike Baldwin to appear with a wider grin than any Doctor before him. He will smite Ken Barlow mightily.

~jwf~

In old times the entertainment maxim seemed to be "leave them wanting more". Now it's "flog it for all it's worth and chase every last penny" which is a shame. I would be quite happy with just Dr Who. However, RD seems to have recognised that there is a limit to how many spin-offs there should be, which is reassuring.

I wanted to see more of K9 because I think he's more interesting than any of the humans! And what does that woman put in her coffee? She's hardly aged!

>And what does that woman put in her coffee? She's hardly aged!<

Gimme some Liz, you can't keep it all to yourself.